Apple's New 2022 iPad Lineup Gives Customers More Options Than Ever

So weird. Rather than offer the 10th Gen iPad, why not just offer a lesser Air with A14 or A15 chip for $449-$499? It could use the Pencil 2 with magnetic charging. If you really want a cheap iPad you’ll stick with the 9th gen. If you want something more you’ll buy an Air. The 10th gen makes no real sense, IMO.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Works when you are a tiny company. To prop up those trillion dollar valuations, you need broader product lines. Apple is too big to operate like they are still tiny.
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I work for a massive medical company, one of the largest in the world. We don’t offer more than 3 options for any of our products. We have a good, better, and best option because anything more than that gets confusing to the customer.
 
MacRumors said:
2022-ipad-lineup.jpeg
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I don't think it's confusing, they just need to take the 9th generation off the poster or put them on a second line with a buy at Walmart/Costco link. It'll make more sense after one more update to get rid of the old 9th gen design and then drop iPad 10 and iPad mini to second line/tier. Or maybe offer 12.9" iPad Air?

iPad Air can continue to offer M series chip with other tech from lower tier iPad and base iPad can stay on iPhone chips.

iPad 10 is good, Air is better, Pro is best.

iPad mini really looks overpriced in this lineup though. Should be $399.
 
DMG35 said:
I work for a massive medical company, one of the largest in the world. We don’t offer more than 3 options for any of our products. We have a good, better, and best option because anything more than that gets confusing to the customer.
Click to expand...

That's good for your company. Apparently Apple needs a bit more than 3 options. If your company is as big as Apple, perhaps you should reach out to Apple and extend and offer to straighten out their foolish ways. On the other hand, if your company is smaller, maybe Apple can teach your company a thing or two?

Personally, I appreciate the want myself. I simply think it doesn't "just work" at 2022 Apple as it did in 1997-2003 or so Apple. I suspect it would be hard to "biggest quarter ever" each quarter if the product line was simplified down to as little as singular choices.
 
Coreymac84 said:
The iPad has plateaued. It's borderline unimpressive at this point. Never buying another one.
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I have to say I’m kind of with you here. I love Apple, but when they consistently do weak releases like this it makes this product line difficult to care about anymore.

They are way too concerned with cannabalizing their laptop sales to give us a true replacement device. And honestly, that is fine, but they need to stop with the “The iPad is a replacement for your computer nonsense.” It isn’t and anyone doing more than then email and web browsing will know that 5 minutes into using one.

I guess I’ve just lost interest in this product line because there is ZERO innovation going on here. Even iPadOS 16 is a complete waste. Oh well, maybe next year 😂
 
It's getting very confusing. The mini used to have (almost) feature parity with the Air. That's out the window now. Each product has a different set of features, not just screen sizes.
 
It's simple, if you re-arrange the images a little.

In the higher tier, you have the iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad Mini.
In the lower tier, you have the iPad (10th gen) and iPad (9th gen). I think Apple would benefit from expanding the "low tier" a bit, but IMO it's a pretty solid lineup. It's just arranged oddly when you sort by price.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
That's good for your company. Apparently Apple needs a bit more than 3 options. If your company is as big as Apple, perhaps you should reach out to Apple and extend and offer to straighten out their foolish ways. On the other hand, if your company is smaller, maybe Apple can teach your company a thing or two?

Personally, I appreciate the want myself. I simply think it doesn't "just work" at 2022 Apple as it did in 1997-2003 or so Apple. I suspect it would be hard to "biggest quarter ever" each quarter if the product line was simplified down to as little as singular choices.
Click to expand...

Uh, you were the one who wrote that having fewer options doesn’t work for large companies. I’m here to tell you that it does. So pump the brakes a little on your snark because I was simply explaining that massive companies don’t need to have multiple different product lines to be successful in them and many times it ends up confusing the buyer.
 
I came to comments to see if I’m the crazy one. It appears not… I was just mentioning fragmentation on another article and this is it right here. A typical conversation about this ad would go like this: “You can get this iPad but it missing this. So I’d go with this on…. We’ll wait a second that’s missing this. So in that case I’d g… ..well, how do you want to use it? Well if you’re just using it for that, you could probably be fine with this model. Well actually that one isn’t compatible with this pencil. Yeah the one you already have. Yeah you’ll have to buy the other one. The first gen one that’s probably going to be obsoleted soon. Yeah they’re still selling it. Well I guess then you might as well get this model. Yeah it’s expensive but at least it works with your existing ch… ah wait you’ll need a dongle. It’s like an adapter… ok we’ll just call it an adapter. Yeah but it’s not too expensive. almost every device has USB-C nowadays. Well this iPad really does the same as the other ones… no it can’t run MacOS. Well yeah then maybe you should just go with the first choice we discussed against…” and so on and so forth.

Absolutely stupid decisions here. Littered with buts and caveats and compromises. There should be iPad (in a mini size and a regular size), and iPad Pro in regular size and that extra large size.
All running relatively the same specs except for the pro which should be bolstered.

EDIT: You know there’s a problem when someone like me, who visits this site almost 10 times a day, following Apple fairly close, is still confused on which model to buy.
I shouldn’t need to compare more than 3 models MAX when shopping for something. Ideally I think the consumer should have to pick between 2.
 
DMG35 said:
None of which are worth upgrading to if you bought an iPad in the last 3 years.
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Yup especially with how slow ipad os has been to progress. No need for frequent hardware upgrades in this category.

At least one of these models is redundant you could easily argue that you could remove 2 from this lineup. What a waste of inventory that Apple needs to make and hold to keep all these in stock.

Yet they preach saving the environment. Frustrating.
 
DMG35 said:
Uh, you were the one who wrote that having fewer options doesn’t work for large companies. I’m here to tell you that it does. So pump the brakes a little on your snark because I was simply explaining that massive companies don’t need to have multiple different product lines to be successful in them and many times it ends up confusing the buyer.
Click to expand...

No snark. If your company is as big as Apple, you've proven my opinion wrong. Contact Apple, offer to consult with them and straighten them out.

However, if Apple is bigger than your company, more options apparently works better for them. Your company might learn that having a few more options will help you grow like Apple.

I fully agree with the last bit- that many products can be confusing to buyers. But bigger companies are not plotting to confuse... simply making moves to maximize revenue & profit. This amount of products must be working for Apple. Else, they would consolidate them down to small-medium-large or similar to save the cost of managing more SKU's/inventory.

I suspect some of us can see this as dumb because we remember the simpler mix when Apple was small. But Apple is gigantic now and probably could not be as gigantic if they clung to the simpler mix. Or at least they obviously don't think so.

I don't know of any trillion dollar (or near it) companies with hardly any product mix. Is there any? Saudi Aramco seems most likely in the list. Here's their product mix overview: https://www.aramco.com/en/workingwithus/customers/products-and-facilities I believe ALL of the other trillionaires have much bigger product mixes than Apple.
 
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Utterly confusing lineup. "Which iPad is right for you?" the answer comes up "none" if you look at the mismatch of features.

I said in the other thread that they need two lines of iPads.

Base iPad: this is meant to be used as a tablet and is a good tablet. Comes in 11-inch and 8-inch mini sizes.
  • A-15 chip
  • Portraint-oriented (not landscape) FaceTime camera (at least 8mp)
  • Touch ID
  • Absolutely NO camera bump. Rear camera is very basic (maybe 8MP or 10MP).
  • 6GB RAM
  • Edge-to-Edge ProMotion display (ProMotion tech has been on iPad Pro since 2017, it should not be a premium feature)
  • Apple Pencil 2 support with Hover
  • No Smart Connector (Bluetooth Keyboards and Trackpads still possible) -- this is meant to be a TABLET, NOT a laptop
  • Storage Capacities: 64GB and 256GB
  • Charging: USB-C with MagSafe Wireless and Reverse MagSafe Charging for iPhone
  • Wireless Options: WiFi or WiFi + Cellular 5G
  • Data Transfer: USB-3 speeds over USB-C port
  • Sizes: 11-inch display or 8-inch mini display

Pro iPad: can double as a tablet and wannabe laptop and a gigantic camera. Comes in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes.
  • M2 Chip
  • 2 x FaceTime cameras (one Portrait and one Landscape) -- both 12MP
  • Face ID
  • Same rear camera as iPhone 14 Pro + LIDAR with the accompanying camera bump
  • 12GB of RAM
  • Edge-to-edge Liquid Retina XDR Pro display with ProMotion
  • Apple Pencil 2 Support with Hover
  • Magic Keyboard (with Trackpad) options via Smart Connector
  • Storage Capacities: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB
  • Charging: Thunderbolt-4/USB-C with MagSafe Wireless and Reverse MagSafe Charging for iPhone
  • Wireless Options: WiFi or WiFi + Cellular 5G
  • Data Transfer: Thunderbolt 4 speeds over Thunderbolt-4/USB-C Port
  • Sizes: 11-inch display or 12.9-inch display

These two lines would serve ALL iPad users. The only problem is that Apple seems to want to push iPad with Keyboard in schools. Let's face it -- this is NOT a good solution as a laptop replacement. But if you really really really have to have a keyboard on iPad for schools then add the smart connector to the base model and sell the accessories. But don't mess with the FaceTime camera and put it in landscape mode -- leave it in portrait orientation for people who actually use their iPad as a tablet.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
No snark. If your company is as big as Apple, you've proven my opinion wrong. Contact Apple, offer to consult with them and straighten them out.

However, if Apple is bigger than your company, more options apparently works better for them. Your company might learn that having a few more options will help you grow like Apple.

I fully agree with the last bit- that many products can be confusing to buyers. But bigger companies are plotting to confuse... simply making moves to maximize revenue & profit. This amount of products must be working for Apple. Else, they would consolidate them down to small-medium-large or similar to save the cost of managing more SKU's/inventory.

I suspect some of us can see this as dumb because we remember the simpler mix when Apple was small. But Apple is gigantic now and probably could not be as gigantic if they clung to the simpler mix. Or at least they obviously don't think so.
Click to expand...
Lol ok. Maybe go back and clarify your post and say “Only a company as large as Apple.” Because saying a “large company” and a “tiny company” is ludicrous in your rationale.

The company I work for has 70,000 employees so I’d say it qualifies as large.
 
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